Fannie Cohen was an immigrant homemaker from Poland, who arrived in New York in 1912; a married woman with two young kids. It was her habit to prepare more food than her own family could ever consume.

Friday mornings at three a.m. she mixed up a batch of dough for Sabbath challah, using twenty pounds of flour, forty eggs and five cups of oil. By Friday afternoon, Mrs. Cohen had twenty braided loaves cooling by the window. Some she gave to neighbors; the local rabbi always received the two largest, and others she sent to recent Ellis Island arrivees. This is her family recipe, scaled down to yield two good-size loaves.